Daddy Issues
by SophiaWrites
Summary: It's Parent Week at Z-Tech, which means everyone's parents get to visit for an entire week! But Fletcher isn't as excited as he should be. (There's a tiny bit of Folive in this story, but it doesn't revolve around them, so not much.)
1. Chapter 1

Fletcher woke up to Angus shaking him by his arms.

"What? I'm trying to sleep."

Angus sounded frantic, "Fletcher, get up! Today's the day everyone's parents come to visit! We have to get ready. I have to find a good outfit to meet Olive's parents in, too! I gotta make them like me."

Fletcher sat up and rubbed his eyes before saying, "What's the point of that anyway? Olive's never gonna go out with you."

Angus replied, "Never lose hope, my friend. And anyway, what's up with you? You seem extremely uninterested. Don't you usually love these type of days? You get to meet everyone's parents this time!"

Fletcher stood as he said, "Yeah, but that also means that my dad's gonna be here, too. That, I'm not looking forward to. At all."

Angus nodded. He knew the situation between Fletcher and his father. It was really the only reason his mother had let him come to Z-Tech in the first place. Before she died, of course. But since she had already paid for everything, his father wasn't going to pull him out. Especially since neither of them wanted anything to do with each other anyway. But since it was a mandatory thing, they would both have to deal with it. The worst part was, everyone's parents stayed for a week. Fletcher would have to deal with his father for an entire week, while still trying to get all of his schoolwork done, and try to make time for his friends. He honestly didn't know if he could do it.

"Alright," Mr. Grundy said from right in front of the Room-A-Vator doors, "as you all know, today marks the first day of our Parent Visiting week. I know you all must be very excited. Of course, I wouldn't be if I was in your situation. My mother hates me." Fletcher glanced at Chyna, who looked a little concerned for Mr. Grundy, until he continued and her expression was erased from her face.

"But anyway, all of your parents should be here by 2 'o clock and all of their rooms have been prepared accordingly. If anyone has any questions you may come up to me to have them answered now."

A small swarm of kids made their way over to Mr. Grundy and began bombarding him with questions while Fletcher, Angus, Olive, and Chyna made their own little group and began talking.

Chyna began, "I can't believe our parent's get to come visit us! And for a whole week! I haven't seen my parents for like...forever!"

Olive said, "Actually, it was exactly 157 days, 10 hours, and 35 minutes ago. Oh, wait, 34." She laughed. "It's actually kind of funny, because it's been 157 days, 10 hours, and 48 minutes since I've seen my parents. Because I made it here before you on our first day." She smiled, very proud of herself for knowing those details.

Chyna stared at her blankly for less than a second before smiling and letting out a small laugh. "Cool."

Chyna was nice like that. As long as you were happy about something, she made herself happy too. She cared enough to make herself happy for you. Fletcher loved that about her.

Angus said, "I can't wait for my parents to get here! They can update me on our boat and everything. And how Grandpa Ralph's doing! He has an ulcer or a hernia or something too medically complicated for me to understand. Or want to."

Olive was about to explain the differences between the two, but was cut off before she got to say a word by Chyna, who said, "What about you, Fletcher? Aren't you excited to see your dad?" She smiled, waiting for him to say something along the lines of 'Of course, why wouldn't I be?'

But all he could do was shrug and say, "I don't know, I guess." He took a step back and sat down on the couch behind him, looking down at his hands.

Olive said, "I don't think Fletcher has the brain capacity to understand how big of a deal this is." She turned to him and very loudly said, "Fletcher, our parents get to come and hang out with us for an entire week! We get to meet everyone else's parents, too! PARENTS!"

He stood up and said, "I gotta go," before almost running to the Room-a-Vator doors and leaving to who-knows-where.

"Hey, Angus," Chyna said, "you spend more time with him than we do. Do you know what's wrong with with Fletcher?"

"Well, I didn't want to tell you while he was here, but now that he's gone, I guess…"

Olive looked utterly uninterested as Angus and Chyna sat across from each other. She sat down with them and figured she would listen to him talk, even though she didn't really care.

"You see, Fletcher has some...issues with his dad. Even before his mom died, they never really had any kind of actual relationship. They were always really mean to each other. He would throw away some of Fletcher's art supplies and paintings and stuff. He never enjoyed the thought of him being an artist anyway. But Fletcher always had his mom there to, I don't know, tone it down a little? I guess it was a good thing that he was already in school when she died. I don't know where he would be now if he wasn't."

"Oh, wow," Chyna said softly. "So that's why he's been like this these last couple of days… Well, maybe we can try to get them to like each other a little more!"

"Okay," Olive said, "I know you always like to butt into people's lives to 'fix things', but I really think you should leave this one alone. You could just end up making things a lot worse for everyone. Especially Fletcher."

"Wow, Olive, you actually sound concerned for Fletcher."

Olive shot back, "I'm not! I just don't want you to make his situation with his father any worse than it already is. This isn't something to mess with. That's all."

"Well," Angus said, "maybe I should go check on him. I mean, he seemed a little offended when Olive practically yelled at him."

She looked a little guilty while he walked away. Once he was gone, she said, "Hey, it's not like I knew."

Fletcher was sitting on his bed angrily scribbling on his sketch pad with a pair of headphones on and when Angus walked in, he could hear faint music, so he guessed whatever he was listening to was on full volume. He sat down in front of his computer and started typing really fast. He was looking up Fletcher's dad. Within 6 seconds he had found him and all of his information, including police records, which he wasn't expecting to find at all. He was skimming through them and he found a few normal things like traffic tickets, running red lights, stop signs, etcetera. But then he came across a few that weren't normal things. Things like breaking and entering, and abuse. Of an adult female and...a male minor. He clicked on it and read further into details. He whispered to himself, "'A Quimby, David was charged on November 16th 2004 with abuse by his then fiance Weiss, Magenta. He allegedly pushed his four year old son Fletcher into a wall, resulting in multiple head wounds after beating his mother Magenta for weeks beforehand.' But then she married him?" He scrolled down to see updates posted by anyone. Police, news, anything.

"'After weeks of therapy, David Quimby was released to live with his fiance and child once again. After 3 years of living together again, David and Magenta were married and they were now known as the Quimby family. Fletcher Quimby was fine and has grown up to be a fine boy.' Published 9-12-06." That was the last update. He heard a voice behind him.

"Angus?" He quickly turned off his computer monitor and turned to face Fletcher.

"Yeah?"

"What are you doing?"

He scratched his neck a little. "Uh, nothing. W-Why would I be doing anything? I'm just...sitting here."

Fletcher just shook it off and said, "Well, come look at this. Give me your opinion."

Angus got up and said, "Come on, if this is another picture of Chyna, let me just tell you they all look the sa-" He stared blankly at the sketch pad in front of him. "Who's that?"

He started, "My-" He cleared his throat, "My mom." A drop fell on the bottom of the drawing and they both pretended they didn't see it.

Angus said, "It's really nice. I really like it."

Fletcher wiped his eye and said, "Uh, thanks. I'm thinking I might give it to my dad. What do you think?"

Angus smiled, "Sounds like a great idea. Look, I gotta go right now, but I'll be back in a while."

Fletcher nodded and Angus left, just like he said.

"Really?" Olive said with a shocked look on her face. "He was only four?"

Angus nodded, "Yup. He told me all about his dad, but he never told me that."

"Wow. Should we tell Chyna?"

"No. Not at all. Knowing Chyna, she'll probably try to butt in, like she always does, and end up ruining everything. And we don't know how that guy is. He could go on a rampage for all we know. Let's just keep this between us."

She nodded, "Okay."

"Hey," he said, "we're keeping secrets together now. This is a big step in our relationship."

She laughed a little, then turned serious and said, "No," before she left him standing there."

"Hey...Fletcher?"

Fletcher turned to see Olive standing in his room, just that was an odd sight.

"Olive? What are you doing here?"

"I, uh… I just wanted to tell you that some of the parents are getting here already. I thought, maybe… Do you wanna come and wait for your dad? Or would you rather just stay here?"

"Oh. Uh, yeah, I'll go." He stood, ripping a piece of paper from his sketch pad and folding it before putting it in his pocket. He met Olive by the door and left with her to meet everyone else and their parents as they arrived.

Once they arrived, Chyna almost screamed, "Fletcher! Finally, we've been waiting forever! Olive had to go up and get you for us! Come on, hurry up!"

He slowly walked behind Olive, barely looking at anything but the couch he plopped down on. They all looked at him for a few seconds, until he became aware that they were.

"What? Is there something on my face?" he said while frantically wiping his entire face with both his hands.

Olive said, "No, it's nothing, don't worry about it."

Chyna whispered to her, "Since when did you decide to start being so nice to Fletcher?"

She snapped back, "Since never, I'm not being nice to him! I'm just- DAD!"

She ran towards a tall, dark haired man wearing a light blue shirt and a huge smile on his face and buried him in a hug. Once she let go, she said, "Where's Mom?"

He replied, "She insisted on carrying the bags, so I'm going to guess she's still grabbing them from the car."

"Actually," a woman said as she came through the elevator doors, "I'm right here."

"MOM!" Olive yelled as she attacked her mother with a hug as well.

Her mother laughed, "Hi, honey."

Olive said, "I missed you guys so much, I have to tell you about everything!" She then began telling her parents about, well, everything. Beginning from the first meal she had at Z-Tech.

Fletcher looked at them and smiled a little before looking down again and just waiting. He looked up every little while when a few more people would come in. There were a lot of parents here now and it seemed like everyone else had two parents except for him. He had one father that was barely even that. That's all.

Everyone was here but Fletcher's dad and he had been waiting for a long time. Almost everyone took their parents somewhere in the building. Chyna and Mr. and Mrs. Parks were the only ones that decided to wait with Fletcher. He checked his watch and right at that second, it beeped. It was 3:00. He sighed and said, "Forget it. He's not coming. I'm going to my room."

Chyna said, "Wait, maybe he's just a little late."

"You've been telling me that for more than an hour. He's not coming. I knew this would happen anyway, why did I even try?"

He started to walk away when Chyna put her leg in front of him and he tripped on it. He fell face first onto the floor and didn't even try to get up. He just laid there for a few seconds. Mr. Parks said, "Chyna!"

She said, "Sorry, but come on!" She stood and helped Fletcher up from the floor. He swiped off dirt from his yellow jeans as she said, "Look, just wait ten more minutes. If he isn't here by then, you can leave."

He rolled his eyes and said, "Fine."

She smiled, "Okay."

It had been 7 minutes and he still hadn't come. Fletcher whined, "Can I leave yet?"

Chyna replied,"No. The deal wat 10 minutes. It's only been…" she checked her phone, "8 minutes. You still have like, two and a half to go."

He groaned. It was then when they heard the elevator doors open. They all shot their heads that way to see a very tall dark haired man with two small suitcases in his hands. Fletcher's eyes got wide and his heart starting pounding. He felt his palms getting sweaty as the man said, "Hi Fletcher."

Fletcher looked down at his hands and said, "You're late."

His father smiled and said, "But I'm here, aren't I?"

Fletcher couldn't help but smile. "Yeah. You are."

"Well," Chyna said, "what are you waiting for? Go hug him or something!"

Fletcher's dad laughed and said, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." He put his bags down and starting walking towards Fletcher as he got up from his seat. It happened fast. It was like, one second, they were just standing in front of each other and the next, they were holding onto each other so tight. In that moment he loved his dad more than he ever had. He was so happy he could barely stand it.


	2. Chapter 2

"I guess this is your room," Fletcher said as him and his father stared at the gray door with the name 'Quimby' next to it on a small tag. "I still can't believe Mr. Grundy made an entire new floor for these rooms even though this only lasts a week. Makes me wonder how much money he actually has."

His father opened the door and started putting his things away while Fletcher talked to him about things that had been happening when he was here. He stopped talking once his father finished unpacking. He then remembered what was in his pocket.

"Oh," Fletcher said, "I drew this earlier. I uh, wanted to give it to you." He pulled the folded piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to his father.

His dad unfolded it and stared at it for around 10 seconds before he looked back up and said, "I really like it. Thank you."

Fletcher did a half nod and smiled a little. Maybe his dad had changed. Even if just a little.

"I really should go, though. It's getting late and I have classes in the morning."

His dad nodded, "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow, Fletcher. Goodnight."

Fletcher smiled as he left, closing the door behind him.

He got to the Boys' Lounge to see Angus sitting on the couch typing on his laptop.  
Once he saw Fletcher, he quickly closed it and said, "So, how did everything go with your dad?"

Fletcher sat and said, "Surprisingly okay. I'm hoping it'll last."

"I'm sure it will. He probably got too bored while you were away. Maybe he missed you and he's trying to make it up or something."

Fletcher smiled a little, "That would be kinda cool. I'd love to have an actual relationship with my dad, he's just never let me. Now I might actually be able to and that's just awesome to think about, you know?"

Angus nodded, "I got you, Fletcher. Keep me posted. I'm going to bed."

"Alright. Night."

"Hey, Fletcher. How's everything been going with your dad?"

Fletcher looked up from his math homework to see Chyna smiling in front of him. "Oh," he said, "fine. How are your parents? Having fun with them?"

"Yeah. Lots. They've both been hanging out in the spa a little too much, though."

He laughed a little and said, "Yeah, I haven't seen my dad for like, 2 hours. I wonder what he's up to."

Chyna said, "Well, maybe you can go check on him or something. You only have a week to catch up."

"Yeah, I know. Maybe later though. I still have to try to finish this. To tell you the truth, I have no idea what I'm doing so I'm just writing down random numbers."

"Well, why don't you just get a tutor?"

Fletcher scoffed, "You think I wanna hang out with Lexi every week? She'd probably just yell at me and leave to change her outfit every five minutes. I'd rather just fail."

Chyna laughed a little. "Well anyway, I gotta go. Olive wanted to talk to me and I'm dying to figure out why. She sounded frantic."

Fletcher said, "Alright, see you later, Chyna."

He went back to his math problems and ended up doing his homework until 6:00. He figured that would be a good enough time to go talk to his dad for a while. He made his way to the parents' floor and knocked on his father's door.

"Dad?"

He stood by the door for a minute or so, hearing a few clatters and footsteps before it finally opened. That's when he smelled it.

"Y-Yeah, Fletcher?" his father slurred as he tried to keep himself from falling.

"Oh…" Fletcher stared at the misplaced room behind his father as he said, "I was gonna ask you a question but I just remembered the answer right now. I should go, I have a lot of uh, homework...to do." He stayed silent for less than a second before he blurted, "Should you be drinking in a school?"

His father looked puzzled, "I'm not drinking. Who said I was drinking?"

Fletcher hesitated, "I...I can smell it, Dad…"

"What?! How do you know what alcohol smells like?!"

Fletcher was quiet. "Look, Dad, I only know what it smells like because of you."

"What are you implying? Are you saying I'm an alcoholic? I am not an alcoholic! Your mother thought the same thing about me. She was a bitch. L-Look, don't be like her, be more like me. Work hard and-and...and never take no for an answer. Now go and do your homework… We'll talk tomorrow. And uh...d-don't be like your mother." He mumbled something else when he closed the door, but Fletcher couldn't hear it. He didn't really want to.

He kept trying to take deep breaths as he made his way back to the Boys' Lounge, but the deeper he breathed, the angrier he got. By the time he got there, he felt the extreme need to smash something or yell at someone or do anything to let his anger out.

He practically ran to his room to find Angus sitting at his desk on his computer.

"Hey, Fletcher."

"Could you get outta here for like, an hour?" He could barely speak without screaming. He was trying his hardest to keep it in.

"How come? You got a hot date or something?"

He held his head with both of his hands, "Just please. Leave."

Angus quickly stood up and left, not saying another word.

Once the door shut, Fletcher didn't hesitate to let it all out. He screamed. He screamed as loud as he could and he didn't care at all who heard him. He grabbed the first fragile thing he could find, which happened to be a lamp and threw it against the wall. He kicked the wall until his foot hurt and threw one of his paintings on the floor and stomped on it until the edges of the canvas were no longer connected.  
He finally screamed at the top of his lungs, "I WILL NEVER BE LIKE YOU!"

He panted for more than five minutes trying to catch his breath.

"I gotta get out of here," he mumbled as he rubbed his head, which now hurt from his screaming so loud.

He walked out of the room and saw Olive standing by the elevator doors, mumbling to herself and pacing.

He was still breathing heavily when he said, "Olive? What are you doing here? You never come over here."

"I…" She stopped. "Why do you look like that?"

"Look, Olive, I don't have time for your teasing right now, I'm busy."

"No," she walked closer, "you look...disheveled. And exhausted. Are you okay?"

He scoffed, "What do you care?"

"Look, I-"

"Olive, just say it, you don't care and you never have. It's fine. I wouldn't expect you to anyway." He shoved past her and quickly left into the elevator. He didn't really know where he was going, he just rode it for a while. A few kids made their way in and out and before he knew it, he had been riding the elevator for an hour. No one really seemed to care that he had been sitting in the corner of it the entire time, either.

At 8:15, Angus went into the elevator and looked down at Fletcher sitting with his knees up in the corner.

"Fletcher? What are you doing in here?"

Fletcher looked up and shrugged before looking back down again. He had calmed mostly calmed down, but he was just really tired now. He felt the need to talk to someone, but he also didn't feel like using words at all.

Angus kept trying to get him to talk. "Are you okay?" Silence. "Hey, Chyna just told me this hilarious joke, wanna hear it?"

Fletcher exhaled loudly, "Not really… What time is it?"

"Um, 8:17."

"Good. It's acceptable to go to bed now." He slowly stood as the elevator doors opened and he was in the boys' lounge once again. As they walked to their room door, Fletcher saw that Olive was still there. He looked at her and she looked at him, but neither of them said a word. She continued sitting and he continued walking behind Angus. Once they went into their room, Fletcher went straight to his bed. He didn't change or set his alarm beforehand or anything. He just climbed in and buried himself under the covers without saying another word.

He fell asleep pretty quickly, Angus could tell by the soft snoring coming from Fletcher's side of the room. He got up from his chair and left, softly closing the door behind him so Fletcher wouldn't wake up.

Olive was still there, and she practically jumped off the couch. "Angus! Do...do you know what's wrong with Fletcher?"

He shook his head. "He wouldn't tell me. He just went straight to bed. He's already asleep."

She sighed. "Dang it…"

He was extremely concerned since it was Olive. "What's up?"

She shook her head, "Nothing. I just wanted to talk to him. He said something… Don't worry. It's no big deal. I'm gonna go to bed, okay, Angus? I'll see you in the morning!"

Before he knew it, she was gone. He sighed before going back into his room and getting in bed.

"Hey...Chyna?" Olive had just walked through the door to her and Chyna's room.

Chyna looked up from her laptop and said, "Olive! Did you tell him?"

Olive slowly shook her head. "No… I mean, why would I? I don't know why I let you talk me into it anyway. He doesn't like me and he never will, so what's the point? There are some things you should just keep to yourself."

"But, Olive, this shouldn't be one of them! You have to tell him how much you like him! Maybe if he knows, things will change."

She scoffed, "I highly doubt that. And even if I were to tell him, I don't think I should during Parents Week. He's having a hard enough time as it is. I can tell."

Chyna closed her laptop. "Wait, what? When I saw him, he seemed perfectly fine. What did I miss?"

She shrugged, "I don't know. He won't tell me or Angus. I can just tell something's bothering him. He told me… He thinks I don't care about him."

"But you're one of his best friends."

Olive sighed. "I don't think he sees it that way." She climbed into her bed and covered herself with her Fletcher memory quilt. She didn't bother changing either. She just laid there until she eventually fell asleep.


End file.
